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Bring all the aspects of your life together— create, play, discover, connect, and work.

Get to it all from the new Start screen, even your familiar desktop

Discover popular and unique apps in the Windows Store

Personalize with more tile sizes, colors, & backgrounds

Do more with side by side views of apps and sites

Access photos & files virtually anywhere with SkyDrive built-in

Search, browse, and share more securely and quickly

Protect your data by encrypting it with BitLocker

Access one PC from another with Remote Desktop

Connect to your company network with domain join

What’s new in Windows 8.1 Pro?

It plays as hard as it work

Windows 8.1 gives you the power to quickly browse, watch movies, play games, polish your resume, and pull together a killer presentation — all on a single PC. Now you can organize up to three apps on your screen at once in a single view.

The Start screen.

Personalize your Start screen with your favorite news, friends, social networks, and apps. Customizable colors and backgrounds and four different sizes of tiles make your device as unique as you are.

The apps you want.

In addition to great built-in apps for email, people, photos and video editing – you can also download thousands of popular apps from the Windows Store, including Netflix, ESPN, Skype and Halo: Spartan Assault.

Mouse, keyboard—and now touch.

Windows 8.1 works harmoniously with various types of devices, including touch, mouse-and-keyboard, or both. Whatever kind of device you have, you'll discover fast and fluid ways to switch between apps, move things around, and go smoothly from one place to another.

Your files, everywhere.

Stay connected to your photos and important files and access them on your phone, tablet or PC with SkyDrive. By signing in with your Microsoft account to any of your PCs running Windows 8.1 and you'll immediately see your own background, display preferences, and settings.

Your familiar desktop.

From the Start screen, you are just a click away from the familiar Windows desktop you know so you can do the stuff you’ve always done.

Multitasking made easy.

It’s easy to do up to four things at once. Snap multiple apps side by side in a single view for easy multitasking and enhanced productivity.

Security.

Stay up to date and more secure with Windows Defender, Windows Firewall, and Windows Update.

Speed.

Windows 8.1 starts up faster, switches between apps faster, and uses power more efficiently than previous versions of Windows, including Windows 7.

Experience Office at its best on Windows 8 devices. Discover new and better ways to create, edit, and browse—using a keyboard, pen, or touchscreen. Don't forget: Office is not part of Windows 8.

Some features require Windows 8.1. Update available through Windows store for Windows 8 users. Internet access required; fees may apply.

Don’t forget, Office isn’t included in Windows 8.

Windows 8.1 Professional

1 GHz processor or faster with support for PAE, NX, and SSE2

2 GB RAM

20 GB available hard disk space

1366 x 768 screen resolution

DirectX 9 graphics processor with WDDM driver

To use touch, you need a PC that supports multitouch

Internet access (fees may apply)

Microsoft account required for some features

Watching DVDs requires separate playback software

Windows Media Center license sold separately

Downloading Windows 8.1 Pro over a metered Internet connection

A metered Internet connection is when a service provider charges by the amount of data sent and received by your PC. Windows 8.1 is a large file: about 1.5 GB for the 32-bit version and about 2 GB for the 64-bit version. Before you start the download on a metered Internet connection, be sure to:

Check your current usage, and then figure out if this download might result in additional charges.

Allow enough time for the download to finish. Most people with a broadband Internet connection complete the download in an hour or two, but download times will vary based on your connection speed and other factors.

The following table shows the settings, personal files, and applications that you can keep during an upgrade.